ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy rifle team will shoot in its final regular season match on Saturday versus John Jay. The team’s “NCAA Qualifier,” the Mids and Bloodhounds begin their competition at 8 a.m. at the Bancroft Hall Rifle Range.

Saturday's match score will count as half of the team's total in the NCAA Championship qualification process. The other half comes from an average of three matches shot previously this season. The NCAA then adds the two scores together and the top eight teams will qualify for the championships in mid-March. Navy comes into Saturday ranked 13th overall.

The Mids registered a 4,601-point score in last season’s qualifying match victory over John Jay.

Last Time Out

Two weeks ago on Sunday, Feb. 9, the Navy rifle team ran into a Memphis squad, who shot a school record on its way to defeating the Mids. The ninth-ranked hosts earned a 4,683 to 4,627 victory over Navy.

Looking deeper than the win-loss outcome, the Mids compiled their second-highest team score of the season on the strength of a 2,304-point result in smallbore and a 2,323-point effort in air rifle.

Alex Berry led Navy's smallbore counters with a career-high score of 581.

In the air rifle portion of the match, Navy had its top-four scorers register scores between 582 and 579. Dan Jonas was the leader with a 582 score. Jodi Cull-Host and Zach Gibson tied for runner up honors with matching 581 scores. Berry registered the fourth-highest total of 579 points.

The Bloodhounds

A member of Navy’s former conference, the MAC, John Jay comes in Saturday’s competition with an 11-4 record in air rifle and a 7-7 mark in smallbore.

In their most recent match at the University of Sciences on January 31, the Bloodhounds posted a 2,187-point effort in air rifle and a 2,027-point score in smallbore for a 4,214 aggregate.

“We are on the bubble to make the top eight and qualify for the NCAA Championships so this meet is huge for us. We have an uphill battle as the quality of competition and scores across the sport have gone up exponentially. Coming into this qualifying meet, this is our highest three-match average ever, but we find ourselves ranked 13th so that speaks to the level of competition.”

“The team and individuals are constantly improving, which is great. We’re coming into this match with a positive mindset and off of some strong practices so we’re anxious to try and prove ourselves in this qualifier.”